Three weeks after The Press Democrat profiled a Subway franchise owner alleged to have withheld wages from local employees, the sandwich shops remain open for business. But new developments offer some good news for the victims.
A lawyer in the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office said his agency has begun to explore the allegations. A GoFundMe account has raised enough money to compensate the three teenage girls profiled in the original article. And additional workers have come forward with similar stories of wage theft and poor working conditions at six or more Subway shops owned by John Meza of Brentwood.
The DA’s office is “in the early stages of looking into this, and in determining whether another agency (e.g., the CA Dept. of Industrial Relations or a local law enforcement agency) is already conducting an investigation into this matter,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Cheever wrote in an email.
Cheever declined to say anything further regarding Meza and his companies, Crave Brands LLC and MZS Enterprises LLC. But he added that District Attorney Carla Rodriguez is considering creation of a Wage Theft Unit within her office’s Environmental and Consumer Law Division, to investigate and prosecute uncompensated work.
The DA will be dedicating a 1-800 number for victims of wage theft to call and report crimes, Cheever added.
Attempts to reach Meza for this story, as well as previous stories, were...
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